Sir Robert Howard (January 1626 - 3 September 1698) was an English poet, playwright, and politician.
Life[]
Overview[]
Howard, son of the earl of Berkshire, was the brother-in-law of John Dryden. On the outbreak of the Civil War he was of the King's party, and was imprisoned during the Commonwealth. After the Restoration, however, he was in favor with the Court, and held many important page 201posts. He wrote some plays, of which the best was The Committee, and collaborated with Dryden in The Indian Queen. He was at odds with him, however, on the question of rhyme, the use of which he wrote against in very indifferent blank verse.[1]
Youth and education[]
Howard was the 6th son of Thomas Howard, 1st earl of Berkshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of William Cecil, lord Burghley (afterwards 2nd earl of Exeter).[2] He was a great-grandson of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey.
Wood states that he was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford; but Cole (Athenæ Cantabr.}, who has partly confused him with his uncle (also Sir Robert Howard) suspects that he belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge.[2]
Career[]
At the outbreak of the civil wars he joined the royalists. Under the Commonwealth he suffered imprisonment at Windsor Castle. At the Restoration he was returned to parliament for Stockbridge, Hampshire; became secretary to the commissioners of the treasury; and in 1677 he was filling the lucrative post, which he held till his death, of auditor of the exchequer.[2]
The author of the Key to the Rehearsal states that Howard was the chief figure, Bilboa, in the 1st sketch of The Rehearsal, 1664, but others identify Bilboa with Davenant. Contemptuous reference is made to his literary pretensions in the "Session of the Poets," which appears in State Poems, 1699, pt. i. p. 206.[3]
"Many other places and boons he has had,' writes a hostile pamphleteer, 'but his w—— Uphill spends all, and now refuses to marry him" (A Seasonable Argument to persuade all the Grand Juries in England to petition for a new Parliament, 1677).[2] Howard's 1st wife is supposed to have been an actress (cf. Evelyn, ii. 211), apparently Mrs. Uphill; his 2nd wife was probably Lady Honora O'Brien, daughter of the Earl of Thomond, and widow of Sir Francis Inglefield.[3]
His profits were sufficient, at all events, to enable him in 1680 to purchase the Ashtead estate in Surrey.[2] About 1684 he built for himself an elaborate house at Ashtead, and had the staircase painted by Verrio (ib. ii. 431).[3]
Evelyn sums up the estimation in which he was held, by Dryden as well as others (cf. "Defence of the Essay of Dramatic Poesy," in 2nd edition of the Indian Emperor), when he describes him as "pretending to all manner of arts and sciences … not ill-natured, but insufferably boasting" (ib. ii. 450). Shadwell ridiculed him under the character of Sir Positive At-All in The Sullen Lovers, 1668 (ib.) Lady Vane, in the same play, was supposed to represent the mistress of Howard, who became his 1st wife.[3]
On 4 Feb. 1678-9 he was returned M.P. for Castle Rising in Norfolk, which he continued to represent in every parliament, except that of 1685, until June 1698. Though a strong whig (cf. Pepys, 8 Dec. 1666), he was active in his efforts to induce parliament to vote money for Charles II, and incurred odium thereby. On 9 April 1678 he impeached "Sir William Penn in the House of Lords for breaking bulk and taking away rich goods out of the East India prizes formerly taken by the Earl of Sandwich" (Evelyn, Diary, ii. 229).[3]
At the revolution he was admitted (February 1688-9) to the privy council. In June 1689 he introduced the debate on the case of Gates in the Commons. On 2 Jan. 1689-90 he added a clause to the whig bill for restoring the charters which had been surrendered in the late reign; it was directed against those who had been parties to such surrenders. Early in July 1690 he was one of the commissioners to inquire into the state of the fleet (Luttrell, ii. 74), and on 29 July he was appointed "to command all and singular the regiments and troops of militia horse which are or shall be drawn together under the command of John, Earl of Marlborough" throughout England and Wales (Public Records, Home Office, Military Entry Book, vol. ii. ff. 142-3; Luttrell, ii. 88-9).[3]
On 26 Feb. 1692-3 he married Annabella Dives (aged 18), a maid of honor. She was his 4th wife; after Sir Robert's death she married the Rev. Edmund Martin, and died in 1728.[3]
Howard died on 3 Sept. 1698 ("aged near 80," says Luttrell), and was buried in Westminster Abbey.[3]
Writing[]
Poetry[]
His 1st work was a collection of Poems, 1660, 8vo (2nd edition 1696), which Scott justly pronounced to be "productions of a most freezing mediocrity" (Scott, Dryden, 1821, xi. 6). Dryden prefixed a copy of commendatory verses; he was then living with Henry Herringman, Howard's publisher.[3]
In 1668 Howard dedicated to Buckingham The Duel of the Staggs: A poem, 4to, which was satirised by Lord Buckhurst in a poem entitled The Duel of the Crabs (cf. State Poems,1699,pt. i. p.201).[4]
Plays[]
In 1665 Howard published Foure New Plays, 1 volume, fol. — Surprisal and Committee (comedies), Vestal Virgin and Indian Queen (tragedies).[3]
Evelyn was present at a performance of the Committee on 27 November 1662, and calls it a ridiculous play, but adds that "this mimic Lacy acted the Irish footman to admiration," a reference to the character of Teague, which was suggested by 1 of Howard's own servants (C. Howard, Anecd. of some of the Howard Family, 111). Pepys saw the piece at the Theatre Royal on 12 June 1663, and describes it as "a merry but indifferent play," but, like Evelyn, commends Lacy's acting. It is the best of Howard's plays, and long held the stage. An adaptation (by T. Knight), under the title of The Honest Thieves, was acted at Covent Garden on 9 May 1797, and became a stock play.[3]
The Vestal Virgin was fitted with 2 5th acts; it was intended for a tragedy, but might be turned into a comedy (after the manner of Suckling's Aglaura).[3]
In the Indian Queen, a tragedy in heroic verse, Howard was assisted by Dryden. The applause it received was largely due to the scenery and dresses. Evelyn records that the scenery was "the richest ever seen in England, or perhaps elsewhere upon a public stage" (Memoirs, 5 Feb. 1664). Howard does not mention that Dryden was concerned in the authorship; but Dryden, in the preface to the Indian Emperor —[3] a sequel to the Indian Queen — states that he wrote part of the earlier play.[4]
The 5 plays mentioned above were collected in 1692, fol., and again in 1722, 12mo; a 6th, The Blind Lady, was printed with the Poems; the Conquest of China by the Tartars, a tragedy, which Dryden expressed the intention of altering at a cost of "six weeks' study," was never published (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. v. 225, 281).[4]
Prose[]
In the dedicatory epistle before the Rival Ladies, 1664, Dryden had contended that rhyme is more suitable than blank verse for dramatic purposes. Howard (whose blank verse is execrable) opposed this view in the preface to Foure New Plays; Dryden replied in the Essay of Dramatic Poesy,' 1668; Howard retorted somewhat superciliously in the preface to his Great Favourite; or, the Duke of LermaL A tragedy, 1668, 4to; and Dryden had the last word in a politely ironical Defence of an Essay, &c. (which he subsequently cancelled), prefixed to the 2nd edition of the Indian Emperor, 1668 [see Dryden, John].[4]
Howard's prose writings are Reign of King Richard II, 1681, 8vo; Account of the State of his Majesties Revenue, 1681, fol.; Historical Observations on the Reigns of Edward I, II, III, and Richard II, 1689, 4to; Reigns of Edward and Richard II, 1690, 12mo; and History of Religion, by a Person of Quality, 1694, 8vo.[4]
Recognition[]
On 29 June 1644 Howard was knighted on the field near Newbury for his bravery in rescuing Lord Wilmot from the parliamentarians at the battle of Cropredy Bridge. At the Restoration he was made a knight of the Bath.[2]
Dryden wrote a poem entitled, "To Sir My Honored Friend, Sir Robert Howard," in which Dryden praised Howard for his poetic abilities.
His portrait was painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller.[3]
Howard is buried at the entrance to the chapel of St. John the Baptist in Westminster Abbey. His grave is unmarked, and he has no monument; but a stone in the chapel records his name and date of burial.[5]
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- Poems. London: Henry Herringman, 1660.
- The Duel of the Stags: A poem (with epistle by John Dryden). London: Henry Herringman, 1668; London: H. Hills, 1709.
- Poems on Several Occasions. London: Francis Saunders, 1696.
Plays[]
- The Blind Lady. London: Henry Herringman, 1660.
- The Committee: A comedy. London: Henry Herringman, 1665; London: Jacob Tonson, 1710
- (edited by Carryl Nelson Thurber). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, 1921.
- The Indian-Queen: A tragedy. London: Henry Herringman, 1665; London: Jacob Tonson, 1735.
- The Surprisal: A comedy. London: Henry Herringman, 1665.
- The Vestal Virgin; or, The Roman ladies: A comedy. London: Henry Herringman, 1665.
- The Great Favourite; or, The Duke of Lerma: A tragedy. London: Henry Herringman, 1668.
- Four New Plays (with John Dryden). London: Henry Herringman, 1665.
- expanded as Five New Plays (with John Dryden & Robert White). London: Henry Herringman, 1692.
- The Dramatic Works. London: Jacob Tonson, 1722.
- The Country Gentleman: A "lost" play and its background (with George Villers; edited by Arthur H. Scouten & Robert D. Hume). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1976.
Non-fiction[]
- The Life and Reign of King Richard the Second. London: M.L. and L.C., 1681
- revised & expanded as Historical observations upon the reigns of Edward I, II, III, and Richard II. London: J. Partridge & M. Gillyflower, 1689
- also printed as The History of the Reigns of Edward and Richard II. London: F. Collins, for Thomas Fox, 1690.
- An Account of the State of His Majesties Revenue: As it was left by the Earl of Danby at Lady-day, 1679 London: Thomas Fox, 1681.
- A Letter to Mr. Samuel Johnson: Occasioned by a scurrilous pamphlet. London: Thomas Fox, 1692.
- A Particular Accompt of the Moneys Paid into the Receipt of Exchequer: Upon the late million act; for the benefit of survivorship. London: Samuel Heyrick, 1694.
- The History of Religion. London: 1694.
- A Twofold Vindication: Of the late Arch-bishop of Canterbury, and of the author of 'The history of religion'. London: 1696.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[6]
See also[]
References[]
- Bullen, Arthur Henry (1891) "Howard, Robert (1626-1698)" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 28 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 59-61. Wikisource, Web, Jan. 30, 2018.
- Charles Mosley (ed.), Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th Edition, Wilmington, Delaware, 2003, vol III, pp. 3814–3817, ISBN 0-9711966-2-1
Fonds[]
- Howard, Sir Robert (1626-1698) at the National Archives
Notes[]
- ↑ John William Cousin, "Howard, Sir Robert," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910, 200. Web, Jan. 30, 2018.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Bullen, 59.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 Bullen, 60.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Bullen, 61.
- ↑ Robert Howard, People, History, Westminster Abbey. Web, July 11, 2016.
- ↑ Robert Howard, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, July 15, 2016.
External links[]
- Books
- Robert Howard at Amazon.com
- About
- The Cambridge History of English and American Literature
- Sir Robert Howard in Lives of the Poets by Theophilus Cibber
- Dryden's To My Honored Friend Sir Robert Howard
- Petition to the House of Commons from "Sir Robert Howard's Lady, Lady Honoria"
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Howard, Robert (1626-1698)
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